Opening night for “Destinations” from the 3rd year (level 6) Dancers from the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts school LIPA. Through seeing previous performances of these students at LIPA we have followed their progress from 2nd year onwards. Personally I’ve not been able to attend a show at LIPA since June of 2024, so I was looking forward to seeing this one. There was a moment that I thought it wasn’t to be, as finding a parking space seems to be getting harder and harder these days. Finally we got one and embarked on a longer-than-wanted walk back to the theatre. Once seated, on the side of the stage this time out, which was I think a better choice as the layout of the stage was different for this evening’s performance. For the first time, the majority of the seats were removed and replaced by a large round stage in front of the main stage.
I think our seats in the end were a great choice, as being sat front on as we usually are, we wouldn’t have been able to see past the first stage and would have missed the performers at the back of the stage. This way we could see all but the very far left of the stage. There was a pole in our line of vision but honestly this did very little to obscure the view.
This was the first time I’d seen the stage in such a configuration, it was different and was made use of within this performance. The main stage at LIPA is not the biggest, so sometimes if full of a full cohort of Dancers, they don’t share a lot of personal space and sometimes it can look a little packed in up there. But the addition of this extra performance space was a good idea I think.
The ‘theme’ of this one was a little harder to pin down. It was called “Destinations” so to me that talks about going on a journey.. A journey through perhaps all the stages and skills that LIPA teaches these young students.. Different types of Dance that were well represented on the stage tonight, everything from Modern, Traditional and Classical Dance through Ballet to Tap Dancing and Hip-Hop styled body popping – But not too much of it, a good mixture of all, choreographed excellently to an upbeat soundtrack. The music ranged from operatic vocalists to remixed versions of pop songs such as Kate Bush’s Running up that hill. The soundtrack in places hauntingly guided the way for these Dancers to find their Destinations.
Standout performances this time around.. Firstly, the entire cohort of 3rd year Dancers was incredible. For the first time at a LIPA event, I forgot for a while I was watching Students. If I had one criticism it would be breath control, but this is a skill that I think for a lot of these Dancers will come with time. I mean look, I cannot retain breath control getting in and out of the car most of the time, so doing what they do at the level at which they do it, I have nothing on them. It was a real pleasure to be able to see some of this year’s Dancers again before they head out in to the world of Professional Dance. In particular it was a pleasure to see Zoe Clark again as well as Thea Wolf Solberg, both were superb again in Destinations and I’ll be adding them to my watch list for future performances. I also have to mention Gus Mony and Mitch Bellotti who shared an elegant duet towards the end of the performance.
Around 5 minutes before the end of the show, there was a long pause, then came an announcement from the control box. I could see there were discussions happening over there and there was quite a lot of talk coming from that direction… There was a technical fault and the performance was paused. We were asked to remain in our seats and await further messages. – Some people got up of course, but we remained were we were as I tried to figure out what had happened, not happened or failed. – We think it was related to some strobe lights that were flown down from above, some above the main stage and some more out over the circular stage where the main block of seats usually go.
After a pause of around 5-10 minutes they had fixed the problems and recalled people back to their seats so that the remaining 5-10 minutes of the show could take place. I am glad they did as the final ensemble piece was filled with joy and energy. Well done to the technicians for not panicking and working the problem till a fix was found. It was worth the wait. When you consider that the majority of the technical team are also students at LIPA, it just makes it all that bit more impressive. Well done to all, Dancers, Technicians, Creatives and Lecturers. Best of luck goes out to all of the graduating Dancers from this level 6 cohort, I hope to see you again as you enter the world of Professional Dance.